MTV is known for pushing the envelope. Jersey Shore showcases the antics of unruly wild young people, but they are adults. MTV Skins is a scripted show that showcases the antics of kids. Some of the actors are underage and MTV is taking the heat for showing children in sexually explicit scenarios. Some sponsors like Taco Bell have pulled their advertising from the show. The show starts with a parental warning, but is this enough? Tell me what you think.

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Amber Portwood is facing charges after the viewing public witnessed her beating up her boyfriend. In the state of Indiana it is a felony to commit an act of domestic violence in the presence of a child under 14. She committed the act on her boyfriend in front of their infant child. The premise of the show is to let the viewer watch a day in the life of the teen mom, but like all reality shows the participants are probably encouraged to amp it up for the viewers. Drama is what fuels these types of shows. Sure Portwood might be violent when the camera is off but the camera just makes an argument graduate into to a full blown fist fight. So does MTV bear in responsibility in this? Probably not. They tacitly encourage bad behavior but they don’t make the participants do anything, but they know if they don’t MTV will be casting for a new crop of baby mamas.

This afternoon had the opportunity to sit in on a conference call sponsored by the Mobilization, Change and Political and Civic Engagement Project (MCPCE). They took the opportunity to reveal their findings from a national survey which examined the changing attitudes of blacks, whites, Asians and Latinos regarding race, politics, immigration and more. The chief researcher Dr. Cathy Cohen served as the moderator. If you are interested in reviewing the research you can do so at www.2008andbeyond.com. A number of issues were discussed, but one that I would like to explore is the effectiveness of using networks like BET and MTV to reach young people. President Obama made an appearance at a town hall event last week that was televised on both networks. This was done in an effort to reach out to young people, but one of the speakers on the call made an excellent point. The president has been speaking to college students, but not all young people go to college so how do you cross that divide? The show that came on MTV immediately after the president was Teen Mom. How do you reach the voting age teen mom, how do you reach the minimal wage young worker? Who is talking to them? One of the speakers talked about how this generation is the “wired” generation and they use social media to get the word out. Almost all politicians have a Facebook page and a Twitter account but do they know how to use these tools effectively to reach young people? Young people came out in 2008 and the people that were a part of this discussion believe young people will come out for the midterm elections. The stakes are equally as high. Do you believe the president has been effective in getting his message out to young people? Does he need a surrogate to help take the message to the streets? Tell me what you think.

I have gone out of my way not to watch MTV Jersey Shore. I know that the show chronicles the lives of 7 twentysomethings as they enjoy summer fun on the shore. Their season has ended and they are still in the news because they managed to get an incredible raise for continuing to act badly for another season. Their season finale was the highest rated show in MTV history. So this is news and it is very happy news to the people at MTV, but why was the cast on the Today Show this morning? Is this truly newsworthy. Is this something that everyone in Today Show viewing audience is desparate to hear about? I don’t think so. I really can do without having The Situation and Snooki greet me as I have my cup of coffee. So I advise the Today Show to stick to newsworthy stories and stop inflicting the audience with the likes of things found on the shore.

West, Williams and Wilson all acted badly when they did not get their way. On Sunday morning we saw footage of Serena Williams reacting to a bad call at the US Open. The call might have been bad, but her behavior was indefensible. She later said she was in the moment, but the moment marred her own career far more than a mere defeat. Last night on the VMA awards Taylor Swift was accepting her award for best video. She was having her moment in the spotlight delivering her heartfelt appreciation when Kanye West jumps on the stage. He proceeds say that Beyonce actually had a great video no offense to Taylor. He stole her moment by his selfish need to state his own opinion. Both of these incidents were competitive situations and in a competition there is an ultimate winner and a loser. You can’t just smile and enjoy the victorious moments, but when you lose you become vocal or sullen. In the case of Kanye this was not even his category he just felt the need to rain on Swift’s parade. Last week we had Rep. Joe Wilson felt the need to call the president a lie during a televised speech. I guess he was in the moment too. All of these outbursts have one thing in common they are acts of utter selfishness. The other thing about them is they did not have to happen. Each one of them chose to do what they did. They all would say they were motivated by different factors, but the other thing they have in common is all of them were dead wrong.